Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Thirty Five Mega-X PRIZE Goals

To conclude the evening, Diamandis offered the audience a list of 35 potential Mega-X Prize goals. Circle your top three choices, he said, and we’ll tally the results. Rather than tell you what that particular audience chose, I’ll pass on the list to you. What are your top three choices? What would you add to the list?…

* First (private) Human on Mars* Faster-than-light Communications* Organ Replacement* First Baby Born off Earth* Babelfish - Instant universal translator* Flying cars* Artificial Intelligence: Build a machine that passes the Turing Test* Self-replicating (non-biological) machines* Longevity: Double the length of the healthy human lifespan* Cancer: Be able to detect any cancer at the 100-cell stage and Zap-it* Predict Earth Quakes with >1 hour / >1 day notice* Cure for AIDS* Identify extra-solar life-bearing planet: Any type of replicating life from, single cell or greater* SETI - Proof of extra-terrestrial intelligence* NY to Paris in 30 min* Private, fully-reusable, Orbital Spaceship* Human to orbit for * Hot Fusion -- Sustained, net-energy positive* Vision Restoration: Wire up a false eye for a blind person to gain 20:20 vision* First brain transplant: full functioning of memory and motorfunction and lives > 1 day* Download brain to a computer with all memory intact* Brain to brain communication that are more than 10x the speed of audio conversations* Develop real-time collective consciousness for a group of over 100 people* Eradicate Hunger for > 90% of the human population* Eradicate poverty for > 90% of the human population* Carbon Sequestration: Create an economic device to extract/sequester carbon from the atmosphere* Create an AI that can engage and educate children to their highest potential* Develop a teaching system that allows an increase learning rates by an order of magnitude.